78 countries of the world have now adopted the UNCITRAL Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

1980 (CISG), including all but four of the c ountries of the EU. However, the UK is among those which have not adopted the Co nvention. Critically analyse what the reasons might be for the UK's taking this position a nd whether you consider it might be better for the UK to decide to make the Conv ention part of its sales law. On the 11th of April 1980, the United Nations formed a convention to deal with c ontracts for the International Sale of Goods. This is known as the CISG and also known as the Vienna Convention. Their purpose is to provide one set of laws and regulations that would govern international sales. They want to ensure a high q uality of trading within the members who subscribe to CISG. Out of the 78 states that are part of the CISG, major economies such as the UK, India and Brazil are yet to join. The UK has several reasons as to why they have not ratified that c onvention which shall be explored in further detail. The CISG has been a great s uccess for UNCITRAL. According to John Felemegas, the main reason for the CISG s suc cess is due to the fact that it has been accepted by states from "every geograph ical region, every stage of economic development and every major legal, social a nd economic system". (wiki quote). The aim was to create it in a way that it was easy to understand and to interpret by all the members. Honnold states that the CISG is written using plain language that refers to things and events for which th ere are words of common content . (wiki) It is a great legislative achievement as it has had a huge influence on worldwide trans-border commerce laws. Countries hav e their own reservations about joining the CISG. The UK s main reasons for not joini ng it are simple, the major being that they do not have the time to ratify it an d at this moment, it is not a legislative priority. The reason why it is not a p riority at the moment is because there has been little interest shown in UK busi ness wanting to be part of the CISG. Until more interest is shown then the parliame nt will not act upon implementing it. The debate of whether or not the UK should join the CISG can be argued in both ways. In previous years the UK saw no need to change its international sales regulations but since the economic downfall in 2008 it might be time that they made it legislation as it could be seen as depr iving people of a potentially useful option. The United Kingdom should also rati fy the convention to be among the many European Union nations, United States, Af rican and Latin American nations that have already approved the CISG. However so me people argue that the CISG actually doesn t benefit anybody, these reasons as to why will also be explored. Countries that have adopted the CISG are able to eliminate any vagueness in the domestic laws that deal with the international sales of goods. This agreement al lows international trade to become hassle-free and disputes between trading coun tries are reduced. With the UK not joining the CISG, it causes problems and hass le for the other countries as different arrangements need to be made. In A.F.M. Maniruzzaman's comparative study of selected provisions of English Law and the C ISG and other contract law provisions he says, With the anticipated acceleration of globalisation and liberalisation movements in the near future, there will be a greater demand for the global harmonization of commercial law. In such a situati on, the insular attitude of the United Kingdom to the harmonization phenomenon i s, in fact, regrettable. The time has come to wake up and face reality, and deal with it effectively. (http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/countries/cntries.html). S ally Moss from the CISG explains in an article that the UK government are dealin g with what they believe are more pressing issues at the moment, for example, em ployment, energy, company law. The reason that they do not believe the CISG is o f great importance is because of the lack of interest from the public. Moss says that they usually get a letter to the Ministers asking about ratifying the CISG . This leads them to believe that not implementing this convention is not affect ing the UK economy to a large extent. Ministers have said that they will approve the convention when time allows them. Two formal consultations have taken place on whether to ratify the CISG or not. In 1989 and again in 1997 they issued doc uments asking whether people were in favour, neutral or against the convention.

Of the few documents that were sent back only a small majority were in favour. ( moss) This did not spark an endorsement for accession. The lack of responses are mainly due to the uncontroversial nature of the topic and its technical nature. The UK played a very important part in the drafting and negiotiating of the CISG .